Tony Pulis sat down with his players this week to look ahead to the four season deciding games in the run-in and called on his squad to "embrace" the challenge.

He wants his Boro players to "express themselves" as individuals and as a team in the four remaining matches, three of which come against direct rivals who are also fighting for top six spots.

Pulis is simultaneously focusing on the short-term and long-term at Boro.

In his press conference on Friday morning, he talked about the visit of Bristol City this Saturday being the "most important" game of the season so far and says Boro need to build on the second half and forget the first 45 of Tuesday's "chalk and cheese" performance at Sheffield United.

He again, though, stressed that he's looking beyond the end of the season and said "given time, hopefully we can put things in place that can push this football club on".

He's enjoyed his time at the club so far and enjoyed "looking for things that we can improve". Pulis described Boro as a "good football club with good people" and has seen lots of good things in his three-and-a-half months on Teesside. However, he's also picked out "one or two things that need sorting out". As Pulis put it, "a few uplifts here and there".

But for now, the focus is on the play-off push and the need to bounce back from the Bramall Lane disappointment with three home points against Bristol City.

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City's assistant manager Jamie McAllister this week talked about how much Boro have changed since the sides last met in December and Pulis thinks the same can be said of the Robins.

They too have gone more direct, reckons the Boro boss, who stressed that Daniel Ayala and Ben Gibson will "have to play well" and that the hosts will "have to have a solid base".

Bristol City in action against Boro earlier this season

It will be interesting to see if Pulis makes any more changes than the one he'll be forced into, with captain Grant Leadbitter suspended after his red card at Sheffield United.

Pulis again purred about the second half showing at Sheffield United, just as he had done after the game, which suggests he must surely be seriously tempted to start those who sparked the improvement. He liked Fabio's energy, thought Britt Assombalonga performed as well as he has done since taking charge and Adam Clayton was arguably Boro's best on the night after coming off the bench at the break.